SATs 2025 maths papers: key trends and tricky questions
Sophie Bartlett’s back with her analysis of the 2025 SATs maths papers with all the big questions: how was the paper? How do the marks compare? Where is Chen?
The 2025 UK Key Stage 2 (KS2) SATs maths papers are officially out, and they delivered their annual mix of core arithmetic and sneaky reasoning curveballs—from a three-step crisp conundrum to a decimal conversion designed to test true fluency.
In this exclusive analysis for UK primary teachers, SATs specialist and Year 6 teacher Sophie Bartlett pores over the STA's 2025 arithmetic and reasoning papers. Using unique data analysis, we reveal the critical shifts in National Curriculum weighting (year 6 content is down!), spotlight the trickiest questions, and translate it all into actionable insights for your classroom.
If you'd like a complete guide to SATs, check out our Ultimate guide to KS2 SATs.
2025 maths SATs analysis key takeaways
- The proportion of questions from the Year 6 curriculum fell to just 38% in 2025, continuing a trend that emphasises mastery of earlier content.
- The Calculations and Fractions, Decimals & Percentages (FDP) domains again accounted for the majority of marks (59% combined), making them non-negotiable for revision.
- The arithmetic paper contained its trickiest-ever BIDMAS question (5² + 3) - 12 ÷ 4, designed to catch out pupils with a procedural understanding.
- The only 3-mark question involved 35 boxes of crisps, requiring secure long multiplication and division in a complex multi-step context.
- A seemingly simple reasoning question asking pupils to convert 35.5cm to metres was a major trap, testing careful reading and true fluency with decimals.
Sophie Bartlett's 2025 maths SATs analysis
Well, something (or someone) was notoriously missing from this year’s papers… it certainly is a Chen-igma! (I can hear your groans from all the way over here!)
If you’re a teacher, tutor, or just someone who loves a good data dive (guilty as charged), you’re probably curious about what this year’s papers had to offer. How much does the Year 3 curriculum show up? Did we still have a whole load of fractions questions? And what’s going on with those tricksy reasoning questions that sneak up on even the sharpest pupils?
Well, kettle on and highlighters out, because we’ve pored over the papers, crunched the numbers and picked out the patterns (and a few eyebrow-raising surprises) so that you don’t have to.
SATs 2025 Maths Papers: Key trends and content weighting
Analysis based on the official 2017-2025 KS2 SATs maths papers published by the Standards and Testing Agency (STA).
KS2 Maths SATs papers analysis by @Missie_Bee | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
2017 | 2018 | 2019 | 2022 | 2023 | 2024 | 2025 | |
% required to 'pass' | 52 | 55 | 53 | 53 | 51 | 49 | 53 |
% of questions from years 3-5 curricula | 58 | 53 | 52 | 63 | 58 | 56 | 62 |
% of questions from weightiest content domains (calculations & FDP) | 36 | 43 | 54 | 63 | 58 | 67 | 59 |
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- All key data charts ready for CPD.
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- Key takeaways
More than half of the content in every set of maths papers so far has been drawn from the Years 3, 4 and 5 curricula. In theory, based on the pass marks of nearly all past papers, pupils could meet the expected standard with a strong grasp of content from just Years 3-5. As long as the ‘pass’ mark is below 62% (and it hasn’t been higher than 55% previously), it would still be the case that, in theory, a child could achieve EXS without knowing any Year 6 content.
SATs 2025 content weighting by year group
KS2 Maths SATs papers analysis by @_MissieBee % of questions from each year group curriculum | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Year | 2017 | 2018 | 2019 | 2022 | 2023 | 2024 | 2025 |
3 | 7 | 9 | 10 | 8 | 10 | 12 | 12 |
4 | 26 | 18 | 21 | 23 | 19 | 26 | 21 |
5 | 25 | 26 | 21 | 32 | 29 | 18 | 29 |
6 | 41 | 47 | 47 | 37 | 41 | 44 | 38 |
Can pupils pass SATs without year 6 knowledge?
This year, we saw an increase in Year 5 content, and a drop in Year 4 and Year 6 content - in fact, the proportion of questions derived from the Year 6 curriculum is amongst the lowest we’ve seen at 38% (only to be beaten by 2022’s papers at 37%).
The proportion of questions from the Y6 curriculum was at 38% for the 2025 maths KS2 SATs papers
2025 SATs maths analysis by content domain
KS2 Maths SATs papers analysis by @_MissieBee % of questions by content domain | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Content domain | 2017 | 2018 | 2019 | 2022 | 2023 | 2024 | 2025 |
Number & PV | 9 | 10 | 9 | 9 | 10 | 9 | 13 |
Calculations | 22 | 29 | 30 | 38 | 33 | 41 | 35 |
FDP | 14 | 14 | 24 | 25 | 25 | 26 | 24 |
Ratio & prop. | 9 | 6 | 8 | 6 | 6 | 5 | 6 |
Algebra | 9 | 9 | 6 | 3 | 7 | 3 | 2 |
Measurement | 14 | 13 | 9 | 7 | 7 | 7 | 11 |
Shapes | 9 | 10 | 7 | 6 | 6 | 6 | 4 |
Pos. & direction | 3 | 4 | 3 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 3 |
Statistics | 11 | 6 | 4 | 3 | 4 | 2 | 2 |
Why calculations and FDP dominate the marks
Historically, pupils could theoretically meet the expected standard by knowing only the content from the Calculations and FDP domains. If the pass mark remains below 59% (and, as mentioned before, it hasn’t been higher than 55% previously), it is still possible, in theory, for pupils to achieve a 'pass' relying solely on those two domains.
After quite a hefty increase last year in the number of Calculations questions, it dropped again slightly this year to 35% (although this still remains the most heavily-weighted content domain).
The rise of measurement questions
The proportion of Measurement questions has also risen - the highest we’ve seen since 2018.
It’s important to remember that each of the nine content domains are not weighted equally. Each content domain has a varying amount of substrands, ranging from three (Position and direction and Statistics) to 12 (FDP). Each substrand is split into objectives across year groups - for example, F1 comprises three Year 3 objectives and one Year 4 objective. Calculations and FDP (the highest-weighted domains) have 39 and 40 objectives respectively, partly explaining their larger mark share. However, this isn’t consistent: Measurement has 44 objectives but has only received a maximum of 11% of the marks over the past five years.
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KS2 SATs 2025: GPS papers analysis
KS2 SATs 2025: reading papers analysis
Paper 1: arithmetic paper deep dive
In every arithmetic paper so far, including this year’s, there has always been:
- 36 questions, 32 of which are worth 1 mark
- Two long multiplication questions, each worth 2 marks - one is 3-digits by 2-digits, one is 4-digits by 2-digits
- Two long division questions, both in the second half of the paper, each worth 2 marks - one is 3-digits by 2-digits, one is 4-digits by 2-digits
There was a pretty even spread this year across arithmetic topics. Calculating using known facts is always popular in the arithmetic paper - this year, we saw it five times, all in the first 15 questions (the questions are claimed to be presented in order of difficulty):
- ? x 233 = 0
- 84 ÷ 12
- 12 x 3 x 10
- 72 ÷ ? = 9
- 540 ÷ 6
- 2,000 ÷ 4
Papers 2 and 3: reasoning papers breakdown
Last year, we anticipated that three content domains - scale factors (R3), estimating, measuring, and reading scales (M2), and volume (M8) - might feature in 2025, as they hadn’t been included for three consecutive years. However, this year, only a volume question appeared. This means that M2 and R3 still haven’t been represented since 2019.
Read more: KS2 SATs 2024: Maths paper analysis
Strand and % of representation | 2017 | 2018 | 2019 | 2022 | 2023 | 2024 | 2025 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Number and place value 9-10% | N1 | NO | R | NO | NO | R | R | R |
N2 | R | R | R | R | R | R | R | |
N3 | R | R | R | R | R | R | R | |
N4 | R | NO | R | R | R | R | R | |
N5 | R | R | NO | R | R | R | R | |
N6 | R | R | NO | NO | NO | R | R | |
Calculations (4 ops) 22-38% | C1 | A only | R | R | R | A only | R | R |
C2 | A only | R | R | R | A only | R | A only | |
C3 | NO | R | R | NO | R | R | NO | |
C4 | R | R | R | R | R | R | R | |
C5 | R | R | R | R | R | R | R | |
C6 | R | R | R | R | R | R | R | |
C7 | R | R | R | R | R | R | R | |
C8 | R | R | R | R | R | R | R | |
C9 | A only | A only | R | A only | R | R | A only | |
Fractions, decimals & percentages 14-25% | F1 | NO | NO | R | NO | R | NO | R |
F2 | R | R | NO | R | R | R | R | |
F3 | R | R | R | NO | R | R | R | |
F4 | R | R | R | R | R | R | A only | |
F5 | A only | R | A only | R | R | R | R | |
F6 | NO | R | R | R | R | R | R | |
F7 | NO | NO | NO | R | R | NO | NO | |
F8 | R | A only | R | A only | A only | A only | R | |
F9 | A only | R | A only | A only | A only | R | R | |
F10 | R | R | R | R | R | R | R | |
F11 | R | NO | R | NO | R | R | R | |
F12 | NO | NO | R | NO | R | NO | NO | |
Ration & proportion 6-9% | R1 | R | R | R | R | NO | R | R |
R2 | R | R | A only | R | R | R | R | |
R3 | R | R | R | NO | NO | NO | NO | |
R4 | R | NO | NO | NO | R | NO | R | |
Algebra 3-9% | A1 | R | NO | R | R | R | NO | NO |
A2 | R | R | R | R | R | R | R | |
A3 | R | R | R | NO | R | R | NO | |
A4 | R | R | R | R | NO | R | R | |
A5 | NO | R | NO | NO | R | NO | R | |
Measurement 7-14% | M1 | NO | NO | R | R | NO | NO | R |
M2 | NO | R | R | NO | NO | NO | NO | |
M3 | This has never appeared on a SATs paper as it is part of the KS1 content domains | |||||||
M4 | R | R | R | NO | R | R | R | |
M5 | R | R | R | R | R | R | R | |
M6 | NO | NO | R | NO | R | NO | R | |
M7 | R | NO | R | NO | R | R | NO | |
M8 | R | R | R | NO | NO | NO | R | |
M9 | R | R | R | R | R | R | R | |
Shape 6-10% | G1 | This has never appeared in a SATs paper as it is part o the KS1 content domains | ||||||
G2 | R | R | R | NO | R | R | R | |
G3 | NO | R | R | R | R | NO | R | |
G4 | R | R | R | R | R | R | R | |
G5 | R | NO | NO | R | R | NO | NO | |
Position & direction 2-4% | P1 | This has never appeared in a SATs paper as it is part of the KS1 content domains | ||||||
P2 | R | R | R | R | R | R | R | |
P3 | R | R | R | R | R | R | R | |
Statistics | S1 | R | R | R | R | R | R | R |
S2 | R | R | R | R | R | R | NO | |
S3 | NO | R | R | R | R | R | NO | |
The SATs maths papers questions
Not much to note here - arithmetic is always fairly standard!
Paper 1: arithmetic questions
Paper 1 Question 20
1,004,235 - 52,346 [1 mark]
Column subtraction is obviously a pretty standard expectation, but this particular question requires a lot of exchanging - more opportunities to make a mistake!
Paper 1 Questions 25, 27 and 32
5% of 860 [1 mark]
19% of 2,300 [1 mark]
65% of 540 [1 mark]
There are always at least two percentage questions (sometimes three), and always in the second half of the paper. You can see the complexity increase here too - the first two could be mentally calculated a little more easily than the last (the first, by dividing 860 by 20; the second, by dividing 2,300 by 5 and subtracting 23).
Paper 1 Question 31
(5² + 3) - 12 ÷ 4 [1 mark]
This is the trickiest BIDMAS we’ve seen so far - it’s been the only one to have four numbers! It was also near the end of the paper (the questions are supposedly presented in difficulty order). If some children were taking the rules of BIDMAS literally (and don’t get any mathematician worth their salt started on the ‘rules of BIDMAS’), they might have completed the brackets first (5 + 3 = 8) and then the indices (8² = 64), rather than assigning the square function to the 5. However, I guess this question is going to highlight those who have a less secure understanding of the order of operations (in the way that primary schools are supposed to teach it, anyway…)
Papers 2 and 3: reasoning questions
Paper 2 Question 14
Three lots of multiplying by different decimals, and then adding them, seemed a lot for 2 marks… but I did enjoy the layout of this question. I love a good table, me.
Paper 2 Question 15
Something about this one was so aesthetically pleasing to me; it also happened to please me in a mathematical way, too. This was my favourite question in Paper 2.
Paper 2 Question 17
A 4 kilogram bag of rice costs £6. What is the cost of 500 grams of the rice? [1 mark]
A lot to do here for 1 mark: firstly, knowing that 4kg = 4000g; then that 400g is ⅛ of 4kg; then being able to calculate £6 ÷ 8.
Paper 3 Question 3
There were 15,961 people at a football game. Round this number to the nearest hundred. [1 mark]
Rounding to the nearest 100 where the answer takes you into the next 1,000s boundary… I get it - and I know children should absolutely know how to do this - but it made me wince a little (as most rounding questions do really. Find me someone who likes teaching rounding and I’ll show you a liar with a whiteboard).
Paper 3 Questions 11 and 13
These are really testing children’s understanding of decimals and fractions. It’s a bit like the rounding one above - as if they’re saying, “Yeah, we know you can do this most of the time, but can you really do it?” We all know the children that can round to the nearest 100 as long as it doesn’t cross a 1,000s boundary; likewise, we all know children that can convert between ‘easy’ decimals and fractions, but get stumped when the complexity is stepped up a little.
Paper 3 Question 18b
Convert 35.5cm to metres. [1 mark]
To me, this is another “You think you can do this, but can you? CAN YOU?!” type question. I’m sure lots of children could convert 35cm to metres, but throwing a decimal in there (and therefore making the answer 3 decimals long, which isn’t a common answer when converting cm to m) would catch many of them out, and perhaps instead lead them into thinking it’s a m to cm conversion instead (therefore giving the answer 3,550). And yes I know that’s the point - that they should be reading the question carefully, and that they should understand the concept of converting fluently. But with the pressure, and it being a timed situation… I don’t know. Feels a bit much.
Paper 3 Question 10
I just really liked this one. Bit of table reading, bit of converting measures, bit of the four operations. Lovely jubbly.
Paper 3 Question 15a
A factory makes T-shirts and dresses. They pack them in boxes. There are 50 T-shirts in a box. How many T-shirts are there in 250 boxes? [1 mark]
As a self-proclaimed confident mathematician, the first part of this question threw me at first. I just saw the numbers (50 and 250), assumed the context of the question, and initially wrote the answer as 5 (the number of boxes needed for 250 T-shirts). It wasn’t until I read more carefully - How many T-shirts are there in 250 boxes - that I realised I needed to multiply the two together. I wonder if this question might also catch out the fluent mathematicians, purely on assumption… (and then perhaps this is one of the many issues with having a timed test!)
Paper 3 Question 17
A shop buys 35 boxes of crisps. Each box contains 48 packets of crisps. On average, the shop sells 56 packets of crisps each day. How many days will it take for all of the crisps to be sold? [3 marks]
Our only 3-marker… and it was a meaty one! Long multiplication and long division (both of which are awarded 2 marks each in the arithmetic paper, might I add).
Paper 3 Question 20
Let’s end on another of my favourites. I just thought this one was really fair, and rather satisfying actually. You could work it out visually by drawing on the diagram (splitting the other triangles into four), or mentally but working out ¼ of ¼. More like this please!
The 2025 maths SATs papers results
To achieve the expected standard in maths, the pass mark has previously been around 50% (between 49-55%); this is roughly equivalent to scoring full marks on the arithmetic (40), and around 7-8 marks on each reasoning paper.
KS2 SATs scores by @_MissieBee | ||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
2017 | 2018 | 2019 | 2022 | 2023 | 2024 | 2025 | Change from 2024 to 2025 | |||||||||
Raw score | % | RS | % | RS | % | RS | % | RS | % | RS | % | RS | % | |||
Maths /110 | EXS | 57 | 52 | 61 | 55 | 58 | 53 | 58 | 53 | 56 | 51 | 54 | 49 | 58 | 53 | +4 |
GDS | 95 | 86 | 96 | 87 | 95 | 86 | 96 | 87 | 94 | 85 | 93 | 85 | 95 | 86 | +2 | |
Read more: Get Sophie's analysis on the full 2025 SATs results
So, that’s SATs 2025 in a nutshell. Still heavy on content from earlier years, still favouring the four operations and fractions, and still managing to sneak in the odd question that makes you mutter, “Oof, that’s a bit mean for one mark.”
The takeaway’s the same as it’s always been: a solid grasp of the basics still goes a long way. We’ll keep an eye on the mark boundaries when they drop on July 8th, but for now, take a deep breath and a well-earned biscuit break!
LbQ SATs Springboard bakes this expert analysis into intelligent, ready-to-use assessments. It identifies each pupil's exact gaps (like those tricky decimal conversions or BIDMAS misunderstandings) and provides the practice they need.
